Study of the mass spectrometric fragmentation of pseudouridine: comparison of fragmentation data obtained by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionisation post‐source decay, electrospray ion trap multistage mass spectrometry, and by a method utilising electrospray quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry and in‐source fragmentation

Many nucleosides and their modified forms have been studied by mass spectrometry elaborating the detailed fragmentation pathways under MS2 and MS(n) conditions. Although the C-nucleoside pseudouridine has been fragmented and studied briefly, usually amongst many other nucleosides, it has not been investigated to the same extent as other nucleosides. In this report a number of different mass spectrometric techniques are applied to obtain a fuller picture of pseudouridine fragmentation. At the same time this study is used to compare different tandem mass spectrometric techniques, including a novel methodology utilising a quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-ToF) instrument for MS(n) analysis comparable with that available with an ion trap mass spectrometer.